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Current Trends In Home Audio

This is not a question, but a personal observation.

For the past few weeks I've been house hunting in the Ann Arbor area and consequently I've walked through about 25 homes. Not a single audiophile setup in any of the houses. Not a single phono rig, though one household had about 100 albums next to their CD collection. There also weren't any elaborate home theater setups. The most common audio systems were mini systems with built in CD/DVD players and computers with satellite/subs. Also saw a few Bose Wave radios. In talking with our broker he stated in the new subdivision construction, which he specializes in, that whole house audio systems are a big selling point. He also stated that in the high end housing market ($1 million plus in Michigan) that dedicated media rooms are the norm, but all the speakers are in wall/ceiling types.

Apparently audiophiles are a small chose few.
onhwy61

Showing 1 response by semi

semi
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A friend's relative did really well financially when they sold their high tech company before year 2000, they build a 6000+ sq ft house in Saratoga in Bay Area. For those who does not know the demographic, the house is worth $7M+.

When it comes to stereo, they build a room for home theater and my friend naturally came to me for equipment recommendation. I showed them my SF Amati and suggested Cremona for speakers, their jaw dropped when they heard the price of Cremona. Funny thing is their front door cost $20k alone, enough to buy the whole Cremona set.

High end stereo does not get much publicity as other luxury merchandises, I bet more rich people know about Patek Phillipe than ARC or Rowland. For us to survive, manufactures need to advertise more not just in Robb's Report, but in News Week or Business Week as well.
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